The Way of All Flesh
Report of the Conduct and Progress of Ernest Pontifex.
Upper Fifth Form, half year ending Midsummer 1851.
| Classics — Idle, listless and unimproving. | ||||||||
| Mathematics{{{1}}}„{{{1}}}„ | ||||||||
| Divinity{{{1}}}„{{{1}}}„ | ||||||||
| Conduct in house.—Orderly. | ||||||||
| General Conduct—Not satisfactory, on account of his great unpunctuality and inattention to duties. | ||||||||
| Monthly merit money | 1s. | 6d. | 6d. | 0d. | 6d. | Total | 2s. | 6d. |
| Number of merit marks | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Total | 4 | |
| Number of penal marks | 26 | 20 | 25 | 30 | 25 | Total | 126 | |
| Number of extra penals | 9 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 11 | Total | 48 | |
| I recommend that his pocket money be made to depend upon his merit money. | ||||||||
| S. Skinner, Headmaster. | ||||||||
CHAPTER XXXVIII
Ernest was thus in disgrace from the beginning of the holidays, but an incident soon occurred which led him into delinquencies compared with which all his previous sins were venial.
Among the servants at the Rectory was a remarkably pretty girl named Ellen. She came from Devonshire, and was the daughter of a fisherman who had been drowned when she was a child. Her mother set up a small shop in the village where her husband had lived, and just managed to make a living. Ellen remained with her till she was fourteen, when she first went out to service. Four years later, when she was about eighteen, but so well grown that she might have passed for twenty, she had been strongly recommended to Christina, who was then in want of a housemaid, and had now been at Battersby about twelve months.
As I have said the girl was remarkably pretty; she looked the perfection of health and good temper, indeed there was a serene expression upon her face which captivated almost all who saw her; she looked as if matters had always gone well
165
